Google has finally acknowledged that its characterization of Android as open source is false and, in the end, this can only make the mobile platform stronger, InfoWorld's Galen Gruman argues. 'It's hard for believers to accept that open source brings with it difficulties, but look at the consistent failure of the other open source mobile platforms -- Moblin, Maemo, and MeeGo -- that all devolved into grad-student-like thought experiments and personal pet projects. Users don't want that, and ultimately products are sold to users.' Instead, Google has been quietly taking parts of Android back in house to develop them purposefully and deeply, and as Google has asserted more control over Android, it's improved.

and there's a grand total of three anecdotal refutations of what Google has seen in the marketplace. Of course people exist for whom open source is a selling point. But they represent a tiny portion of the market. Google's not going to find themselves in any sort of dire financial straits by not pandering to this segment. The conclusions are likely not "wrong" even if they are for some of us as individuals, not wrong in a way that Google would care about